At LOU Rugby since June 2017, after training at CS Bourgoin-Jallieu (2012-2014) and a stint at FC Grenoble (2014-2017), the 26-year-old has seen his career thwarted by repeated injuries.
In particular upon his arrival in Lyon, with a fibula fracture with ligament tearing.
A few months earlier, while he was still in Grenoble, an operation on a wrist had slowed his progress for a year 2017 almost blank.
“Injuries are part of the life of a rugby player.
It's more annoying when it comes together to go several months without playing.
Then you have to regain your confidence, your game ”, confides the player, then victim of several minor injuries which deprived him this season of facing Racing 92 for the first day of Top 14. And he still had to s' arm with patience.
“I was good, in good shape.
Then there are people in the workforce, very good players.
They went on and they were good, ”he admitted.
A passage through the 7?
Xavier Mignot, who can also play at the center, seems to experience very well this competition "which pulls up".
“It is present in all the clubs, in everyday life.
It's also important to have depth on the bench, especially when playing the European Cup ”.
Suddenly, the Lyon winger takes refuge in work.
“Xavier is a hard worker.
This hat-trick is a great reward.
He's been working a lot for ten years.
He had to make a lot of concessions, testifies Pierre, his younger brother, international rugby sevens, in contract with the French federation.
Between us, we talk to each other, we give each other advice, we debrief.
We are working hard to make a difference.
I sometimes tell him to come and play 7-a-side tournaments!
We have fun and the game could be beneficial for him. "
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Rugby, Xavier and Pierre have lived in it since their childhood with a father, Laurent, coach, former manager of the Bourgoin-Jallieu training center in the 2000s and who held the same position ephemeral at LOU, which he has left eighteen months ago.
“It's the work that has allowed me to get to where I am.
I have never been the most talented.
As a youngster, I did not cross the field every weekend.
But my father always told me that to be a professional, you had to give yourself the means, ”continues Xavier Mignot.
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In 2023, I will be in the prime of life
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Xavier Mignot
“I did not follow sports studies but a normal school course, with a bac S at the end of the day.
After class, I trained alone or with friends.
I did physical, bodybuilding, he explains.
Integrating the semi-pro group of the CSBJ in Federal 1 (in 2012-2013), was also a good school.
There were a lot of players with Top 14 or Pro D2 experience who knew the requirements of professionalism. "
He thus laid the foundations to take a step forward in Lyon and then claim the French team, after winning the VI Nations U20 Tournament in 2014.
With one ultimate dream: “to play the 2023 World Cup with the France team.
I will then be in the prime of life.
Obviously, we dream of it, ”admits the Lyonnais, without wanting to shoot up the sky when he has only one selection, for a defeat (30-19) against Argentina in 2016.
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